To think we’re in the foothills of World War 3?

[Letthecarhuntbegin]

The West is upping the ante supporting the Ukraine, but I can’t imagine Russia backing down. Surely this will just keep escalating over the coming months and years. The beginning of World War 3?

Absolutely agree with you OP.

many seem to have their heads in the sand about this

Enlighten us. What should we be getting worried about a year into the conflict? this is now like the Somme, with each side fighting for yards of territory.

🤣🤣🤣 Quote of the day

I worry about this too OP. A lot.

I’m not catastrophising or saying we're on the ‘ cusp’ of WW3 or that anything has changed overnight.

I’m just saying that this war isn’t going away any time soon and I can’t see how it will be resolved peacefully. We are throwing more into it. More countries are becoming more invested.

As a PP said, situations and tensions develop over time, it might be years away, but it seems like it is coming. The world is a tense place right now. Resources are scarce and getting scarcer. I sort of feel like another world war is inevitable, and the chess pieces are starting to move towards it.

This is like beginning of covid again and again I am sure some posters again secretly hope for the worst so there would be at least something interesting in their lives.

Well put. OP, if Russia want to escalate this, they will, regardless of what we do or don’t supply.

Malcom Tucker - sadly I can't take credit for it!

It won't ever stop if the west doesn't stand up to Putin. Russia is a failed state, brutality and wilful ignorance is a way of life for the majority. We need to support the countries that defend democracy, that value education, that punish criminality and corruption.

Ukraine belongs in NATO and the EU as a democratic sovereign nation and we should support that and do all we can to ensure it happens. That means telling Putin clearly to get his filthy mitts off now and forever.

I’ve got enough shit going on in my life I can’t worry about something I have no control over.

There is a good principle about defending Ukraine.

It also has a lot of previous rare earths in the disputed regions which are very useful for the green technology needed in Europe, which would mean Russia's oil and gas would become quite unimportant to the West.

Other sources are mostly in China or control of China.

You can expect the West to back Ukraine, because it needs these resources. And it's not all kindness. Ukraine is not getting all this help for free.

People bury their heads because they can’t control the chain of events, they have no power, and as you said - we only see the tip of the iceberg.
If it happens, they are helpless, if it doesn’t then there was nothing to worry about.
It’s arguably better than living a life being ‘quietly terrified’ that something may happen.

We are 30, 40 perhaps 50 years in to the conflict.

We are just one year in to the latest battle.

Spot on.

I hadn’t realised about Ukraine’s resources.
It that why Russia is attacking it, do you think?

It's one of the often overlooked reasons, the fact that the climate crisis plays into this. You are right to flag up Ukraine's resources

Well over 60 years ago my grandfather said that he thought the next major war would be between christians and muslims (small letters deliberate here). Given that the UK is no longer considered to be christian you should be OK.
Europe possibly not so much, but who knows?
To mis-quote Berthold Brecht: war is trade, carried on by other means.

OP I remember your feelings in 1982, watching the ships loading up with their cargo of soldiers.

I remember seeing a carnival atmosphere, and Rod Stewart's song 'Sailing' saw them off. I remember feeling visceral fear for those young men, and at the same time relief that my babies were both daughters who would never be called to serve.

How times change but still stay the same. I don't think you're catastrophising - our best hope is that Putin is taken out by his own, who MIGHT decide they would prefer to have an accord with the West. They might not though.

I'm old enough now to feel that there is an inevitability about this, and I really hope (in the words of Sting) that the Russians love their children too.

I read there's been a war somewhere every single day since the end of WW2, including some in Europe.
It's a bad one for sure but so were some of the others.
I was quite heavily involved in supporting aid work in the former Yugoslavia during and after the war. I was very young but there was a lot of chat about it bringing about the end of Europe as we knew it and the fear of what would come next. There were horrendous reports of widespread acts of barbarism and the folk that were about me were concerned that there could never be peace but look at what happened there.

I think Putin is a bit Stalinesque -.he seems brutal and unpredictable and more than happy to harm the Russians as collateral.
The whole tone of the situation will change when he dies or is otherwise removed from power. At that point we might be in trouble re WW3 if the person who takes over is of a similar outlook and has similar reserves of power as Putin but I think it unlikely someone like him would allow a minion to garner that type of sway within his circle and someone from outside the circle couldn't break in without a coup, which would take the heat off Ukraine.

The West is just in a holding pattern of trying to keep Ukraine in a somewhat recognisable form and prevent all out war until Putin is out and they can deal properly with the next man.

I wrote in another thread that having watched a documentary over the weekend about how WW2 started its very similar to what’s happening now. I have to admit the similarities did make me a little nervous.

Theres an awful lot of sabre rattling going on from Putin’s propaganda machine however unless he bombs a NATO country it will continue as it is. If he wants to pull the trigger and turn it into WW3 I’m going to assume it will be either a ploy to just bankrupt the west or else he’ll have some pact with China or other to join him to create two super powers.

if only we could read his mind.

There's nobody good waiting in the wings in Russia unfortunately

For me what's really odd is that I can't find footage of the families on the docks, it seems to have been expunged from the records. Honestly it was triumphal, and it's stayed with me forever.

Lots of footage of the ships returning though.

Maybe OP. But I think that’s been the case for some time now. How Russia responds to the extra tanks etc is anyones guess.

We’re certainly a long way off World Peace that’s for sure.

Don't even go there OP, we don't need to tempt fate.

As it is, Russia's funds are shrinking, it's army is very poorly equiped and there's been a mass exodus of army-age men. I'm not happy at all about a load of tanks being sent over but it won't happen overnight. We need to tread lightly.

Do you not think that “treading lightly” is exactly what’s been going on here? I don’t think this was a spur of the moment decision.